Pathfinder 2E Humble RPG Bundle: Pathfinder Second Edition Strength of Thousands by Paizo

[Retreater]

How are Hero Points being awarded and spent?

I checked with my friend (since I don't play in that game). Apparently his character did end up living because of the Hero Point. Every player saves their Hero Point just to stabilize. I don't know the frequency (probably as suggested, if I know the GM).
It just hits me funny that this supposably well-balanced system is survivable only with "get out of death free" metacurrency. No one makes the claim that Savage Worlds is balanced, so we don't blink about Bennies in that system.

 

[payn]

I checked with my friend (since I don't play in that game). Apparently his character did end up living because of the Hero Point. Every player saves their Hero Point just to stabilize. I don't know the frequency (probably as suggested, if I know the GM).
It just hits me funny that this supposably well-balanced system is survivable only with "get out of death free" metacurrency. No one makes the claim that Savage Worlds is balanced, so we don't blink about Bennies in that system.

To be fair, its pretty balanced if you stick to moderate or under encounters. Even the severe and extreme are doable, but an untimely crit makes it all fall down like a pack of cards.

 

[willrali]

I checked with my friend (since I don't play in that game). Apparently his character did end up living because of the Hero Point. Every player saves their Hero Point just to stabilize. I don't know the frequency (probably as suggested, if I know the GM).
It just hits me funny that this supposably well-balanced system is survivable only with "get out of death free" metacurrency. No one makes the claim that Savage Worlds is balanced, so we don't blink about Bennies in that system.

So in my experience it is extremely well balanced. (But perhaps our expectations of ‘well balanced’ aren’t equivalent.) Perhaps if the GM is playing optimally and the players decidedly sub-optimally, like using all three actions to attack, or not knowing exactly what their characters can do, I could see the balance falling out of whack.

Hero Points are there to prop up foolhardy decisions that are nonetheless fun and cool/epic, and to make up for bad luck at crucial junctures. They’re the system working as intended IME.

 

[bert1001 fka bert1000]

So in my experience it is extremely well balanced. (But perhaps our expectations of ‘well balanced’ aren’t equivalent.) Perhaps if the GM is playing optimally and the players decidedly sub-optimally, like using all three actions to attack, or not knowing exactly what their characters can do, I could see the balance falling out of whack.

Hero Points are there to prop up foolhardy decisions that are nonetheless fun and cool/epic, and to make up for bad luck at crucial junctures. They’re the system working as intended IME.

To be fair, its pretty balanced if you stick to moderate or under encounters. Even the severe and extreme are doable, but an untimely crit makes it all fall down like a pack of cards.

There is definitely a learning curve for PF1e/5e players as PF2e works quite differently (use your 3rd action for something else, +1s are good, movement can deny big attacks, teamwork is worth more, etc.). However it is known now that the early adventures were overtuned. Way too many Severe and Extreme encounters with 1-2 enemies (meaning many levels above PCs). These should be used sparingly as they feel like desperate fight for your life against a clearly superior foe (e.g., makes all saves, low hit rates). As with many new systems, the adventure writers were behind the rules designers and seemed to write the early adventures with a PF1e mindset.

Agreed, PF2e seems to work best with Moderate and Low as the majority of encounters, with the occasional Severe and Extreme (and Trivial), and the rare Severe and Extreme against a single foe. If your PCs have super teamwork/synergy you can ramp things up a little. Moderate and Low encounters are not so easy they seem worthless to play out but let the PCs interact with the mechanics on the “favorable” side and feel heroic-- PCs can crit and have monsters crit fail saves whereas monsters rarely do. Severe and Extreme flip this dynamic (especially against fewer monsters) which not many players enjoy as a regular thing.

Strength of Thousands is much better on the difficulty scale than earlier adventure paths. IMO, it’s a solid B adventure path that can be an A with some GM work.

Wish I had waited and gotten this bundle! Great deal!

 

[bert1001 fka bert1000]

Well, yeah. I wouldn't keep trying it if I didn't like parts of the system.
It works great on Foundry. The system is well balanced. I like the world and adventures. There's great support online.
It's just too darn challenging as written. I can't keep from killing every character who comes into a game.

Playing a level ahead for published adventures seems to work for some folks with similar experiences. Especially at low levels. You can bring things back to normal at higher levels if it feels too easy then (lower level spellcasters can be a bit weak IMO but are significantly better at higher levels).

 

[JmanTheDM]

so, we're like 12 replies into this thread and NOBODY has stated the obvious.

Come-on y'all, we're slacking on Enworld!

OK, I'll bite. This is obviously the nail in the coffin for PF2e! releasing your content in a humble bundle is clear signs that this is a failed product with no chance of ever being anything other than a historical oddity. Too bad for Paizo, they should have stuck to PF1!

;P

cheers,

J.

 

[Retreater]

so, we're like 12 replies into this thread and NOBODY has stated the obvious.

Come-on y'all, we're slacking on Enworld!

OK, I'll bite. This is obviously the nail in the coffin for PF2e! releasing your content in a humble bundle is clear signs that this is a failed product with no chance of ever being anything other than a historical oddity. Too bad for Paizo, they should have stuck to PF1!

;P

cheers,

J.

I think this is the third time they've done a Humble Bundle for PF2. And they've also done it for PF1 and Starfinder as well.

There have been Humble Bundles for the Cypher System, Dungeon Crawl Classics, 3rd party 5e material (if I'm not mistaken, Kobold Press), Cthulhu, and many other systems.

So I don't think it's the nail in the coffin.

 

[Justice and Rule]

I think this is the third time they've done a Humble Bundle for PF2. And they've also done it for PF1 and Starfinder as well.

There have been Humble Bundles for the Cypher System, Dungeon Crawl Classics, 3rd party 5e material (if I'm not mistaken, Kobold Press), Cthulhu, and many other systems.

So I don't think it's the nail in the coffin.

It's a joke because a well-known D&D YouTuber had thought PF2 was dying because they were doing a Humble Bundle on it last year.


It caught some attention on a few YouTube channels and, well, if anyone wonders why PF2 fans are so irritated with people talking about failure it's because we've been dealing with stuff like this for a year. Suffice to say that, now a year or so on, this is obviously not the case.

 

[Retreater]

It's a joke because a well-known D&D YouTuber had thought PF2 was dying because they were doing a Humble Bundle on it last year.

Oh, I guess I didn't get the sarcasm in the post to which I replied.
And that's a strange take from Tenkar. I know he's a big fan of OSR products and there happens to be a nice Humble Bundle going on for OSE and other products right now.
In fact, I think we haven't seen official 5e D&D content on one of these because they don't release their books in PDF.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Oh, I guess I didn't get the sarcasm in the post to which I replied.
And that's a strange take from Tenkar. I know he's a big fan of OSR products and there happens to be a nice Humble Bundle going on for OSE and other products right now.
In fact, I think we haven't seen official 5e D&D content on one of these because they don't release their books in PDF.

Yeah, I remember it because I remember DungeonCraft parroting it and there were some videos responding to that. It was... a very weird take.